An Abandoned Baby’s Guardian (Preview)

Prologue

Grand Hollow, New Mexico Territory – Spring 1883

“Are you sure about this?”

“What do you mean, am I sure?” twenty-five-year-old Alice Smidgen exclaimed. “It was your idea in the first place!”

Her older sister sputtered, her cheeks flaming with color. “I didn’t think anything would come of it, not really.” She shook her head. “I mean, I’m glad you decided to make the move, coming all this way to Grand Hollow so that we could be close together again, but I don’t think it’s a very good idea to marry a man that you’ve never met.”

“What do you propose I do, Amy?” Her sister didn’t understand. She’d had no other options!

“But you had a good job—”

“I can teach anywhere,” Alice interrupted. “Besides, I was barely making enough to pay for my room and food at the boarding house. Miss Agatha raised her rates again for the second time this year.” She paused. “And I thought you told me in your letter that you knew Hank Thurston.”

“I didn’t say I knew him,” her sister replied. “I said I had heard of him. There’s a big difference.”

“Well, we’ve been exchanging letters for a couple of months now. Remember how I wrote and told you how surprised I was to receive a reply, and even more so when I realized that Hank lived around here?”

Before her sister had moved away from Baltimore, Alice had never heard of Grand Hollow, located up in the mountains of northern New Mexico Territory. Her heart pounding, she tried to still her own nervousness. “I thought you would be happy for me, Amy.” She turned to look out the window of the small front parlor of her sister’s home. “You’re the one who wanted me to come out here so that we could be together again.” She turned her head to look at her sister. “It was even you who suggested that I get married to have extra security and stability in my life.”

“I know,” Amy sighed. “I have to admit that I have been selfish, wanting you closer to me. But I also know that you had a good job teaching in Baltimore. Now, you’ll have to start all over again out here.”

“Hank assured me that there was a school in Grand Hallow. He told me the school committee members have been looking for a teacher to take the place of the teacher who passed away a couple of months ago, God rest her soul.” Alice didn’t much care for the look her sister gave her, one of chagrin mixed with pity.

“It’s not that big of a school,” Amy explained. “Depending on the season, there’s anywhere from fifteen to thirty students, and they range in age from five years old to sixteen or seventeen, depending on their rate of interest.” She moved toward Alice. “Doris Caffrey is a little older than you and takes care of the children twelve years of age and older. Myrtle Gardner passed away a little over a month ago. She taught the younger children. Doris has been trying to squeeze all of them into her classroom in the meantime.”

“But they all need learning, don’t they?”

“Well, yes, but did you write to the school committee to see if you could take her position?”

“How could I? Hank didn’t even tell me her name or anything about how the school was organized or run. He just said that things were less formal here than they are in places like Baltimore or Boston or New York City.”

Amy sighed. “Well, that’s true, and they are in dire need of a new teacher to take Myrtle’s place.” Her face softened. “Myrtle was an older woman, firm but much beloved by her students, by all of them really. She’s going to be missed.”

“You know who I’m supposed to talk to about maybe taking her place?”

“Fortunately, the school committee president, Arthur Frazer, lives in Grand Hollow. We can go speak with him tomorrow. I can hitch up the buggy, and we can go into town together.”

“I brought my credentials, and I have a reference from the schoolmaster in Baltimore regarding my experience.”

“That’s good. Just be prepared. He might’ve filled the position already.” 

Alice’s heart sank. She hadn’t thought of that. Once more, she tried to push doubts and insecurities from her mind. “Well, even if I can’t find a position as a teacher right away, I’m sure that this town of yours has a job or two available for an able-bodied woman, don’t you?”

Amy placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder and offered an encouraging smile. “We can always ask around.”

“Is it far from here? Grand Hollow? Do you get there often?”

“The town is about six miles west of our ranch. Depending on the weather and what’s happening around here, I’m lucky if I get to town a few times a month to go to church, pick something up from the mercantile, and visit with the ladies from the women’s church group. They hold their meetings once a month unless a special occasion comes up, like Christmas or Easter. Most of the time, Adam takes care of supplies.” 

She frowned. “You mean you’re isolated out here?” Alice felt a knot forming in her stomach. Was it Adam keeping her tied down to the ranch? Was he— 

Alice offered a soft smile. “Yes, we are rather isolated out here, Alice, but not in the way you think. Running and maintaining a ranch, even a small one like ours, takes daily effort. There are cattle and horses to move for grazing, fencing to be repaired, and the yard animals to care for. Most of the time, Adam is out on the property working from sunup to sundown.” She glanced at the sleeping baby in the small cradle tucked into the corner of the room. “I take care of the yard animals, which means I’m up before dawn to milk the cow. I take care of the chickens and pigs. Spring through the end of summer, I’m tending my vegetable garden. And then there’s the cooking and canning to do, the baking, the laundry…”

“I understand,” Alice said. “I had no idea you had so much on your shoulders. I mean, I knew you said you lived on a ranch, but I just didn’t think about how much work it entailed or how far you lived from town.”

“How could you? We grew up in a nice home where Marjorie always took care of us and did the cooking and the housework, so believe me, I was a bit surprised and very overwhelmed when I first arrived and realized that I had to do all that work myself!” She smiled. “But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

“And with the baby,” Alice said. Once more she settled her gaze on the sleeping cherub in the corner. “I’ll help you with your chores in the morning, so that everything’s taking care of before we go to town.” She tried a brave smile. “You’ll go with me to meet him? It will be the first time I’ve met Hank in person, and I won’t deny that I’m a bit nervous.”

“Of course I will.”

She wouldn’t tell her sister how frightened she had been the moment the train left Baltimore, that moment when she left everything she’d ever known behind, even though nothing was keeping her there any longer. Amy had gotten married two years prior and then relocated west to live on her husband’s small ranch not far from Taos in New Mexico Territory. Their parents were dead. Alice had finally been able to sell the house. The meager profits had gone to pay off her parent’s debts and property taxes, leaving her with very little to live on. Most of that and her earnings from teaching had been taken up with the monthly rent of a small room in a neighborhood boardinghouse for the past year.

Alice turned back to the window. “Why do you suppose Hank didn’t meet the stagecoach in Taos?” she bluntly asked. “I gave him the same schedule in my last letter that I sent to you.”

She had expected to be greeted by her fiancé when she stepped down from the stagecoach. She had looked for him, heart leaping with expectations. In his last letter, he had described himself as medium tall, with black hair, a moustache, and broad shoulders. He had sent a daguerreotype of a dapper looking man wearing a suit and one of those peculiar narrow brimmed derby hats. He wasn’t wearing a moustache in the image. Instead, though much to her joy, her sister and her husband, Adam, had greeted her upon her arrival. 

“I’m sure he had a good reason,” Amy said gently. “Maybe your letters got crossed, or he got the wrong information from the stage depot regarding your expected arrival.” 

“But you and Adam were there to greet me,” she pointed out.

Amy brushed her hands down her skirt. “Transportation out here isn’t anywhere close to what we were used to in Baltimore.”

“I suppose.” Alice tried to shrug away an alarming surge of nerves that were growing stronger by the hour. Her sister continued with a litany of things that might have gone wrong. 

“A broken wheel, a damaged harness, a horse going lame. There are so many things that can slow a wagon, a buggy, or even a stagecoach on the trails out west.”

“I suppose so,” she murmured. 

So far, nothing was turning out exactly as she had imagined. She might not have a job when she ventured into Grand Hollow tomorrow morning. Once again, a surge of loneliness spread through her. She couldn’t help but feel a bit envious of her sister. After all, she seemed happy with her husband and, of course, with their new child. She was settled on a small ranch. No worries about who would take care of her or who would protect her.

She shook herself out of it. Lord, forgive me. Here I am complaining when I’ve just been reunited with my sister once again. Thank you for getting me here safely, and I will do my very best to be brave as I start my own new life here, even if it is with a man I’ve never met.

She hadn’t really given much thought about that until her sister had mentioned it. Oh, but the letters she and Hank Thurston had written back and forth had been filled with such kindness and declarations of love. Yes, there was a thirteen year age difference between them. Hank was thirty-eight years of age, but his letters had been filled with humor and seriousness both, along with somber wishes to marry and have a family after all his years of waiting for that perfect woman, who he claimed in that last letter was none other than her.

Yet now, standing in her sister’s parlor, she struggled with uncertainty. While she couldn’t claim that she loved Hank Thurston, having never met the man, she had put her hopes in him. “Amy?”

“Yes?”

She swallowed thickly. “What if this doesn’t work out?”

Chapter One

Alice

“It’s so beautiful out here,” Alice commented. “I wasn’t expecting this. I thought this was all high desert.”

Amy turned to her with a smile. “I did too, when Adam first told me he lived in New Mexico Territory. Actually, there are several large mountain ranges to the west and east. Southward, past Santa Fe, it gets more desert-like.”

“I’m just trying to get my bearings.”

“All right.” She pointed as she spoke. “Our ranch is located northeast of Taos Pueblo. The Buffalo Grass Creek runs along the southern boundary of our property. Right now, we’re heading north, along the western edge of the foothills of this mountain range, called the Sangre de Cristo range.” She pointed in a different direction. “That peak up there rises to about twelve thousand feet. Grand Hollow is about three miles north of where we are now, along the banks of the Hondo Rio. To the east of town, the landscape gets a little rougher. There’s a canyon there, and more foothills that lead up into the mountain range.”

Alice had studied her geography books before coming and had read a little bit about the territory. Even so, she had believed the area to be desert like, maybe with those funny looking cacti growing up from the ground, along with clumps of mesquite and wild prairie sage jutting up from a never-ending flatness that extended to the horizons in all directions. She mentioned that.

“Oh, there’s plenty of flat, dry territory to the west, but then you’d come to another range of mountains. And then there’s another range to the south of us, located closer to Santa Fe, and yet another mountain range to the east of Santa Fe as well.”

Yes, she had seen plenty of wide-open areas, but there had also been mountains, many of them rising hundreds to thousands of feet high, covered with varying shades of green pines growing on their slopes. She also spied several different types of oak trees, cottonwoods, and even some gold-leafed trees whose leaves seemed to tremble in the slight breeze. She asked Amy what they were.

“Those are aspen trees, Alice. Around here, we call them quaking aspen because of the way their leaves move. They’re also called golden aspen. In the spring, like now, the leaves are varying shades of green. In summer, they turn a yellow-gold, and then in the fall, they turn a golden rust color before they lose their leaves. They’re my favorite trees out here.”

Her sister- and brother-in-law pointed out other tree varieties, but she soon lost count. There were the Bigtooth maples, small, leafy trees that looked more like shrubs than trees to her, and the hackberry shrub-tree. 

“Those are pinyon pines,” Adam pointed. “Their pine nuts are tasty and loved by people and animals alike.” He pointed higher up on the slopes. “Those are called Ponderosa pines. You can tell them by their reddish-black bark. The pinyon pines get larger up in the higher elevations too. And over there is a white fir.” He pointed again. “Those are junipers. They like rocky slopes. They’re also called Checkerbark Junipers by some around here.”

So many varieties of trees, shrubs and soon-to-sprout wildflowers. She had a lot to learn about her new home. Adam grew quiet and Amy seemed relaxed sitting between them, the babe sleeping so calmly and safe in her arms. Alice smiled; her mind stilled for the moment. The vast blue sky above was dotted with white puffy clouds, so lovely that the sight nearly took her breath away, just as it had the first time she’d seen it after stepping off the stage in the old pueblo city.

Adam had decided to drive them to town in the buggy this morning, claiming he had some orders for fencing that he needed to give to Hardy Mills, the man who owned the local sawmill. Then he said he needed to stop in at the hardware store to order – or purchase if he were fortunate enough – a new plow blade from Dawson Fross. If not, he would have to visit the town blacksmith, Josh Kelsey, to have one made. 

Alice had an inkling that Amy had asked him to come along for moral support, whatever that might entail.

“Over the next coming weeks, we need to get our corn and wheat field planted,” Amy explained. “We don’t sell any of it, but use it for food for the animals.”

Adam drove, Amy sitting next to him, little Mabel in her lap, Alice on the outside of the buggy seat, her right hip pressing against the wrought iron metal rail. She felt nervous about meeting her fiancé, let alone attempt an unscheduled interview with the school committee president, Mister Frazer. She tucked her hands together between her knees, her skirts swallowing them up. She glanced self-consciously at her sister and the baby, but couldn’t help but smile at the face of the sleeping child. Plump cheeks, unbelievably long eyelashes, her little Cupid’s bow lips pursed. A tender feeling swept through her.

She had never pictured her older sister with children, not that she didn’t think it would never happen, but because neither one of them had ever been courted. Not until that day Amy had literally bumped into Adam on a sidewalk in Baltimore. He was in the city taking care of some business of his recently deceased father. He had stayed for a month and then they were married.

“We stay close to home, mostly,” Amy continued. “The ranch keeps us busy. Sometimes though, Adam has to go down to Taos or even Santa Fe, but only if he has to.”

Alice leaned slightly forward so she could look past Amy and the baby toward Adam. “What do you mean? Why the only if you have to, Adam?” She placed emphasis on the words.

“Outlaws,” he answered with a shrug. 

Alice stared at him. “Outlaws?”

“There are plenty of them out here in these parts, Alice. You heard of Billy the Kid?”

Her eyes widened. “Of course I have. I saw his name in the newspaper a couple of times, but it was a while ago.” She thought about it. “His real name was William Bonnie, wasn’t it? Something about some kind of conflict in Lincoln County.”

“Actually, William Bonnie is an alias too. He was born Henry McCarty in eighteen-fifty-nine. Shot and killed at age twenty-one.” He shook his head. “He and his gang used to move around in these parts. They robbed prospectors, travelers, whoever they could get their hands on, really. He was shot and killed a couple of years ago, but there are always more. Most of the outlaws operate quite a ways south of us, closer to the Mexican border, but still, it’s one of the reasons I don’t do much traveling south of Taos. This part of New Mexico Territory is populated mainly by those looking to make quick money, like business investors looking for rich mining opportunities. As a result, there are always outlaws looking for easy targets.”

Alice sat quietly as the buggy bumped along the road, simply enjoying the fresh air and the beautiful landscape, pushing thoughts of outlaws and dangers out of her mind. Her spirits had just begun to rise when Amy spoke, sinking them once again.

“We went ahead and rented you a room at Rosalie Porter’s boarding house, at least until you get settled at school.” She gestured with her thumb toward the valise that Alice had brought to her sister’s house from the stage. Her trunk was supposed to be arriving within the next few days, and she would need to arrange to go back down to Taos to pick them up. 

Amy glanced at her husband and then back at Alice. “If there’s an open position at the school, they can set you up in the small house at the eastern edge of town where Myrtle stayed. It’s closer to the canyon. There’s another one on the other side of town for Doris. The monthly rent is very reasonable, a stipend really, and you’ll have more space and privacy than at our house. Not to mention that both are in the town proper.” 

Alice tried to tamp down a sense of disappointment. What had made her think that she would be living with her sister and her new husband and their new baby? After she had seen the small ranch house, she understood there was no room for her, unless she wanted to live up in the attic space. Besides, she couldn’t borrow their horse and buggy every day to travel to and from the school.

She turned to her sister with a forced smile. “Thank you very much. I appreciate that.” 

The closer they got to town; the more nervous Alice became. Hank had told her that he lived in a small house on the west side of town, but that’s all he had mentioned in his letters. She didn’t have a specific street address. Yet as they approached the town of Grand Hollow, she realized why. It wasn’t anything like she had imagined the town to look. They came up on the southern edge of town, a number of wooden structures scattered along the southern banks of a small river.

They entered town from a southern direction and intersected Main Street. She was too nervous to take in much. Main Street was dirt, crisscrossed with deep ruts left by wagon and buggy wheels, and horse’s hooves. No brick-lined streets or paved cobblestones here. Most of the structures were built of wood planks, she noticed, and a couple of the structures looking newer than others. She heard the distant whine of a saw at the sawmill, the steady clang of a blacksmith hammer banging iron against iron. Adam pulled the buggy to a halt in front of the southern edge of town just outside of a carpentry shop. He turned to Alice.

“You know where this fiancé of yours lives?”

Alice glanced at him. “He just said it was on the western edge of town.”

He gave a small shrug. “There are a few houses over there, past the church and the schoolhouse. Three of them were within sight of the town. He probably lives in one of those.” He paused, glancing to his wife and then back to Alice. “Would you like me to walk over there with you?”

Alice wanted to say yes, but shook her head. “No, that’s all right. Amy is going with me. I know she has some things to pick up from the mercantile as well, so we won’t stay long. Then I have the interview with the school superintendent, and then I’ll introduce myself at the boarding house.” She saw the lifted eyebrow Adam sent Amy’s way.

“Yes, I’m going with her to meet Hank,” Amy said. She gave her sister a small smile. “For moral support.”

Alice felt so nervous about meeting her fiancé for the first time and having her sister with her made her feel less frightened. Amy glanced at her husband. Alice didn’t miss the nod she gave him. He simply sighed. 

“An hour then?” He said, glancing at his wife. “I need to get back to the ranch, so if Alice wants to stay awhile and visit with her fiancé, maybe he can escort her to the boarding house after the visit.” He turned to Alice. “Is that all right with you?”

Alice’s heart leapt into her throat at the thought of being left to her own devices in a strange town, with a fiancé she had never met. Not to mention the upcoming meeting with the president of the school committee. He had the final decision whether to hire her or not. Then she would have to find the boarding house, make introductions, answer the questions, and so on and so forth. All within an hour. It left her feeling more than a little rattled.

Alice smiled up at her brother-in-law. “That’ll be fine, Adam. Thank you so much for bringing me into town.”

After giving his wife a kiss on the cheek and laying his large hand over the babe’s head, Adam turned and walked off. Amy looked up at her. “Are you ready?”

Alice inhaled a shaky breath. “As ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose.” She glanced at the buggy. “I’ll pick up my valise after the visit with Hank.”

Chapter Two

Ezra

It was the day after his thirty-second birthday that Ezra Draper decided to return home. He was now on his way back to northern New Mexico Territory and the town of Grand Hollow. He had left the city of Helena, Montana Territory, behind him days ago, where he had lived for the past five years. He had also left behind a decent and growing practice in Helena, treating the ailments and injuries of the inhabitants of the former gold camp, founded just prior to the end of the War Between the States. 

Helena was an exciting and fast-growing city due to the ever-increasing arrival of wealth seekers, including miners, investors, and business people from all walks of life hoping to provide services, products, or both to its growing population. The fast development of Helena was mostly the result of a man named Thomas Cruse, a miner who had, to his great luck, discovered a large gold deposit in the mountains northwest of what would soon become a boom town. His claim, which he named, perhaps due to his Irish descent, The Drumlummon Mine, had already produced millions of dollars’ worth of gold and silver.

As a result of the constant influx of gold-diggers, Ezra had made a very good living as the only ‘real’ doctor in town, fixing his patient’s broken bones, patching up their gunshot wounds, or mixing medicines to treat their gout. He also treated his fair share of blood poisoning cases caused by infection when the injured failed to seek his services soon enough. Using his acquired medical expertise, he helped everyone he could. He treated those with whooping cough, consumption, and typhus, which locals called camp diarrhea. He offered advice for pregnant women and delivered more than a dozen babies over his years there. He was often paid in gold nuggets, coins, or paper money, but was happy providing his services for trade. It could be a chicken for supper, eggs for breakfast, or even the Colt revolver he now wore on his hip. It was, after all, a rough country filled with rough men.

He’d been dismayed to realize that he’d begun to grow homesick for the town in which he had been born, raised, and lived until five years ago. A tragic incident had driven him away, traveling as far north as he could get before he decided to try to start over and make a new life for himself. Even though he had made the decision to return to Grand Hollow, he also felt more than a bit of trepidation. Had he made the right decision? Was this sudden urge to return home yet another mistake? Would returning home bring back all the memories that he had struggled over the years to overcome? The sadness, the grief, the guilt? 

Lord, am I doing the right thing? Am I going where I’m supposed to go? Will I be able to make a fresh start in the place that holds so many memories for me? Please, guide me. I lean on You for my strength and my hope. In Your name I ask, amen.

The miles sped past. The landscape through which they traveled now was fairly flat, the mountains of the Rockies behind them. Dust covered the interior of the coach and sifted down from the cloth drapes pulled back and tied with twine. The leather seats were well-worn and needed new padding. The side walls creaked and popped with every stride of the horses, the trace chains rattling, the snap of the reins, and the groan of the axles beneath him. Every time the coach endured a bump in the road or a sharp turn, he expected one of the wheels to snap or simply roll away.

“You say you’re a doctor?”

The rocking of the stagecoach had lulled him into a sense of semi-relaxation, his eyes half drooping as he gazed out the window and the landscape rushing past. Green hills studded with short stumpy pines, the mountain slopes rising above them covered with darker green swaths of taller and thicker growths of pine. The sky was a brilliant blue, with nary a cloud in it.

“Yes,” he replied. He had done his best to avoid conversation with any of his fellow passengers since they had left Wyoming Territory a couple days ago. His journey so far along the nearly three-hundred-mile ride journey south had followed along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, followed by a westbound turn in Walsenburg, then south again as they headed into the New Mexico Territory. By his reckoning, they would arrive in Taos tomorrow afternoon.

“You going to be setting up practice in these parts?”

He glanced at the older woman once more and nodded. “Planning on it.”

“Where?”

He barely hid a frown. Yes, stagecoach travel was long, uncomfortable, dusty, and tedious, but he had no interest in filling the time with idle talk. “Not sure yet.” He purposely glanced out the window, hoping to still any further interest in conversation. He wasn’t usually so rude and didn’t mean to be, but he just didn’t feel like talking. He had too much on his mind. Because this decision had been rather sudden, he doubted that the letter he had sent to his mother, living on the property that his family had owned for over fifty years, had been received yet. He would have to stay with her for a few days until he found a place of his own. He had received a letter from her six months after he’d left, eventually having found its way to Helena, informing him that his old office had been taken over by a young seamstress and her tailor husband, who lived in the rooms above it.

In his mind, he saw his family home, a beautiful, large stone and timber home situated on a sprawling cattle and horse ranch a few miles outside of town. He wondered if the old foreman was still there, the cantankerous and one-armed Crockett Woodward, named after the infamous Davy Crockett. He must be in his sixties now, if he was still alive. Then again, he knew his mother would’ve written and told him if the old man had died.

He looked forward to seeing some of his old friends, especially Jack Poole. They were the same age and had been best friends ever since they were school-aged children. He could imagine that Grand Hollow had grown a bit over the past five years, but hoped that some of the original residents were still there and that he could restore his once thriving practice to take care of them. Unless, of course, the town already had a new town doctor, a beloved one, like he used to be. If that were the case, he would have to find another town to call home. He closed his eyes, pretending he had fallen asleep, not wanting to encourage any more conversation or attempts at it from the older woman. To his surprise, he actually slept.

*

It was just heading into mid-afternoon when the stagecoach pulled up on the northern outskirts of Grand Hollow to let Ezra out. He had paid the stagecoach driver an outrageous five dollars to pull the horses up for all of a few minutes so he could disembark here instead of having to take the stage all the way down to Taos and then have to rent a horse to come back up to Grand Hollow. After all, the stage was passing this way anyway and had only had to make a small detour in the same direction.

He stepped out of the stagecoach, the sifting of silty dust floating around him while the stagecoach driver wrapped the reins of his six-in-hand team around the brake handle and then clambered onto the top of the stage, throwing down one valise, followed by another.

“That it, Doc?”

Ezra nodded, hiding the wince he experienced at the sight of his cargo being tossed so recklessly over the side of the coach and onto the ground. His surgical set was wrapped in a thick roll of leather, snugly tied with a leather strap, so should be safe enough. So too would his doctor’s bag, tucked inside one of the valises. With chagrin, he figured it was lucky he hadn’t tried to bring his microscope with him, for surely it would’ve broken by now. Still, he regretted leaving it behind. No matter. He had his sights set on a new brass compound microscope that he had seen in a medical journal recently. It was a magnificent example of modern science, circa 1880, made by George Wale and patented in 1876. The barrel of the scope inclined at various angles, was steadier than its predecessors, and had staging clips, concave mirrors, and two eyepieces, all of it contained within a very handsome black walnut box. It cost an arm and a leg at thirty-five dollars; plus, whatever shipping would cost. He had been diligently saving for months for the pleasure of obtaining one for his new physician’s office, wherever that might be.

With a barely discernable nod, the stage driver sank down onto his wagon seat once more, slapped the reins, and set the horses onward. Ezra picked up the two valises and began what would be a relatively short walk to his mother’s property, his family home. The western edge of town was roughly three miles further on, but his family home was just a mile away, nestled along the banks of a small creek that ran through groves of aspen and cottonwoods along its banks.

He looked forward to seeing her for the first time in five years. No matter how old a man got, the feel of a mother’s embrace had the potential to heal all sorts of doubts, worries, and mistakes. A renewed surge of guilt flowed through him, but it was well past the time for regrets. He needed to move forward in his life, to try to get past the memories that had driven him away from this place. 

The sound of horse hooves approaching from behind him prompted him to move over to the side of the trail while at the same time glancing over his shoulder to see who approached. It was the voice he recognized that had him smiling with pleasure.

“Ezra? Ezra Draper, is that you?”

He turned to face the horse and rider more fully as the man pulled his horse to a halt, staring at him, jaw dropped, as if he had seen a ghost. “Well, sakes alive!” 

The man dismounted and quickly stepped toward Ezra. Ezra smiled at his good friend, Jack Poole, and they embraced, slapping each other on the back the way men do. Finally, Jack stepped back, his hand still on Ezra’s shoulders, gently shaking him.

“I can’t believe it’s you! Last I heard, your ma told me you had a good practice up there in Helena. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming home?” He paused. “Are you coming home, or is it just for a visit?”

Ezra grinned. “I’ve come home, Jack.” He paused. “Unless you already have a new town doctor, that’s set up practice here.”

He snorted. “Well, there is a doctor here, soft of, if you want to call him that. I tend to think he’s nothing more than a quack, and a drunkard one at that.”

Ezra frowned. “And he’s hung his shingle in town?”

“Not exactly,” Jack said. “He comes up from Taos maybe every week or two, stays at the boarding house while he’s in town, and then he goes back to Taos. He stays a day or two, then back to Taos he goes.” He shook his head. “Frankly, the town doesn’t rely on him too much. More often than not, you can smell alcohol or laudanum on his breath. He can set a bone all right, if he’s sober, but I honestly think that half the medicines and tinctures that he prescribes, made by that dubious apothecary down in Taos, are nothing more than snake oil.”

Ezra felt another layer of guilt settling on his shoulders. He had left his friends, his family, and the townspeople of Grand Hollow without a doctor that they could rely on, one that would get up in the middle of the night to go help birth a baby, or to sit at the bedside of a feverish child. He shook his head. “Think the townsfolk would mind having my shingle hanging up again?”

Jack belted out a laugh. “Well, it’s about time, if I do say so myself! Your ma know you’re coming?”

“She might. I wrote a letter last week, but with the mail service being what it is, I might end up surprising her.”

“I’ll say,” Jack said. He stared at Ezra for several moments, simply grinning and shaking his head. 

Holding on to his horse’s reins, Jack walked beside Ezra as they headed down the trail that would eventually take them into Grand Hollow, if he followed it all the way there. Ezra turned to his good friend, glad to see him looking fit and healthy. Beneath the brim of the cowboy hat, he saw a tinge of gray at Jack’s temples, which just reaffirmed his decision that it was time to come back home. He wasn’t getting any younger, neither was his good friend, and neither was his mother.

“How’s she doing, Jack?”

Jack glanced at him. “Believe it or not, as spunky as she’s always been. A little grayer, maybe, a few more wrinkles, a few complaints about achy joints.” He pointed to his own face. “But don’t we all?” He shook his head with a little chuckle. “I’m glad spring is here and it’ll warm up soon. My own joints get a little stiff and sore now of the morning.”

Ezra grinned. “I know what you mean.” 

Jack gestured as they neared the path that veered off the trail to town. “Well, I’ll leave you for now. You go on home and surprise your ma.” He sobered. “You don’t have a doctor’s office anymore, at least for the moment. It was taken over by a dressmaker and her husband.”

“Yeah, so she told me.” He looked off into the near distance, eyeing the land and the home in the distance, the sight of which filled him with a sense of comfort and a modicum of stability. “I’ll figure that all out soon enough. The town still needs a doctor, though.”

Jack nodded. “Grand Hollow is a tad bigger than you remember it. You’re bound to see plenty of new faces, too.”

They paused in the road. Ezra extended his hand, gripping that of his friend. “It’s good to see you again, Jack. I’m sure I’ll be headed into town at some point tomorrow. You’ll be there?”

“Of course. I’m still running the dry goods and grocery mercantile.” He scratched at his chin stubble as he grinned. “I’ve made it bigger, added a room for a wider variety of goods. I’m thinking of changing the name to Poole’s Emporium.”

Ezra smiled, seeing the pride in his friend’s eyes. “I’ll make it my first stop.”

“There’s a bakery in town now too, and a tinsmith, and a gunsmith, and a blacksmith in addition to what was here when you left.”

Ezra smiled. “I’ll come by in the morning. I’m going to need some things and I got some visits to make, see about setting up a new practice.” He turned to glance over his shoulder at the house. His heart warmed with love and a sense of comfort when he saw a woman standing on the porch, staring at them. He had no doubt that his mother would recognize him, even from a hundred yards away.

Jack saw also and turned to go. “See you around, Ezra.”

“That you will.” Ezra turned and headed toward the house while at the same time his mother stepped down off the porch and made her way quickly down the path, meeting him halfway, her eyes filled with tears, her arms outstretched for her wayward son, returning home at last.

---

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Answering an ad for a mail-order bride, Alice Smidgen finds herself at the mercy of fate when her fiancé vanishes without a trace, leaving her stranded at the altar. As whispers of gossip engulf her, Alice’s resilience is put to the test when an abandoned infant appears on her doorstep, intertwining her fate with that of the town’s enigmatic doctor.

Will his understanding gaze offer refuge from the storm of gossip?

Dr. Ezra Draper, scarred by the shadows of his past, returns to Grand Hollow seeking redemption and a chance at renewal. Haunted by the memory of lost love, he finds himself inexplicably drawn to the resilient schoolteacher, Alice. Despite his initial reluctance, Ezra’s stoic facade begins to crack as he witnesses Alice’s unwavering strength and compassion.

Will he find his heart awakening to the promise of love once more?

Amidst the harsh realities of frontier life and the weight of past betrayals, Alice and Ezra must confront the shadows that threaten to tear them apart. Will they find the courage to trust again and embrace the love that calls them, or will the secrets of the past unravel their fragile bond?

“An Abandoned Baby’s Guardian” is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

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